French motorway toll tag

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baroudeur
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Re: French motorway toll tag

Post by baroudeur »

ChrisH wrote: Mon Jul 19, 2021 14:57
jervi wrote: Mon Jul 19, 2021 14:48 When I went last year I got my tag using a discount code provided by Eurotunnel (if going via the tunnel oc).
The tag was free, except a deposit you get refunded if/when you send it back. Its only a 10euro saving, but its something.

https://www.eurotunnel.com/uk/promotions/emovis-tag/
https://www.emovis-tag.co.uk/subscription/
I've just ordered the same deal - looks like the best available.
The best deal is directly with an Autoroute concessionaire. I'm with ATMB who have an offer with free transponder and free postage until 23rd August. Apply on line but use 62100 as your postcode because UK postcodes won't work. You can change it to your postcode once signed up.
Never had any problems and no charges other than the toll fee plus €1.90 for any month the tag is used taken from my account using my credit card.

https://libertevasion.atmb.com/


APRR who I was with previously also have an offer with free transponder and free postage.

https://tinyurl.com/nnsd6jv6


The deal tied to the UK operation of Sanef is expensive by comparison.
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Norfolktolancashire
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Re: French motorway toll tag

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roadtester wrote: Thu Jul 22, 2021 15:16
M4Simon wrote: Mon Jul 19, 2021 21:25
SouthWest Philip wrote: Mon Jul 19, 2021 20:55 I found when I toured France with just my toddler daughter in the back, following my wife's passing, that the easiest thing is just to get out, saunter around the front of the car to present the credit card (or collect ticket) and saunter back. Far easier and quicker than trying to lean over. I don't recall I ever got hooted at and if another vehicle was behind I'd just smile and wave! Don't think I used tolled autoroutes enough to bother getting a tag.
Another serious option is to avoid the Peage sections. We tended to stay overnight somewhere in central France, usually somewhere between Dreux and Bourge depending on where we were going. If you take the A16/A28 route to Rouen and then make for the A154/N154 to the A10, you can miss out the toll sections of the A16 and the A13/A154 and get as far as Orleans without adding too much time to your journey. We also avoided the A71 section to Bourges, picking up the free A20 which will get you well into south west France on your second day. There are threads on here giving more details. If I'm staying overnight, I don't mind spending a little longer travelling on the old N routes and seeing some nice places along the way. If I'm rushing back to the channel and trying to get home in one day, I'll pay the tolls.

Simon
I've never really found it that inconvenient to walk around the car - if anything it's a beneficial mini-stretch for the legs.

I also at least look at the route options to see if there are any alternatives that involve fewer or no tolls, and this can often lead to a more interesting journey.

I think Michelin's online route planner/maps provides toll costs for journeys, or at least it did, which is handy from that point of view.
I used the toll free routes down the west of France to reach the Spanish border.

I even attempted to use the side roads along the A63 between Bordeaux and Biarritz , small S2 roads which were deliberately constructed to make the southwards passage awkward! I drove through a lot of pine forest and nothing else, circumvented service stations with tall security fences around and ended up near a nuclear facility!
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Re: French motorway toll tag

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It depends where you're going and how much of a hurry you're in, but in many cases it's possible to get to the other end of the country without using a péage at all. I drove from Calais to the Mont Cénis pass (and back again 2 weeks later) without a toll. Many routes nationales are straight, good quality and fairly traffic free, meaning you can just sit at 90 (yes, I know the limit's gone down recently) for miles. Given that (a) the traffic on the autoroute may not allow you to do 130, and (b) it may rain and therefore bring the limit down to 110, and (c) there are portions of the non-toll network that are Dx or S2+1 and therefore have higher speed limits, I wonder whether the time savings from using the autoroute all the way are as great as one might presume at first glance.
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Re: French motorway toll tag

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FosseWay wrote: Fri Aug 06, 2021 06:23 It depends where you're going and how much of a hurry you're in, but in many cases it's possible to get to the other end of the country without using a péage at all. I drove from Calais to the Mont Cénis pass (and back again 2 weeks later) without a toll. Many routes nationales are straight, good quality and fairly traffic free, meaning you can just sit at 90 (yes, I know the limit's gone down recently) for miles. Given that (a) the traffic on the autoroute may not allow you to do 130, and (b) it may rain and therefore bring the limit down to 110, and (c) there are portions of the non-toll network that are Dx or S2+1 and therefore have higher speed limits, I wonder whether the time savings from using the autoroute all the way are as great as one might presume at first glance.
Eurotunnel to Orleans via Rouen - I think it is about an hour extra by avoiding the Péage sections. You also have the benefit of being able to stop in a village and avoid the overcrowded service stations (joys of summer Saturday motoring in France). Probably another 30 minutes extra to get down to the start of the toll-free A20. It's a nice route choice if you are not driving to a schedule.

Simon
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WHBM
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Re: French motorway toll tag

Post by WHBM »

Autoroute tolls experience around Cannes from a few years ago :)

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=29781&p=621391&hilit=Cannes#p621391
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ChrisH
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Re: French motorway toll tag

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M4Simon wrote: Fri Aug 06, 2021 09:41
FosseWay wrote: Fri Aug 06, 2021 06:23 It depends where you're going and how much of a hurry you're in, but in many cases it's possible to get to the other end of the country without using a péage at all. I drove from Calais to the Mont Cénis pass (and back again 2 weeks later) without a toll. Many routes nationales are straight, good quality and fairly traffic free, meaning you can just sit at 90 (yes, I know the limit's gone down recently) for miles. Given that (a) the traffic on the autoroute may not allow you to do 130, and (b) it may rain and therefore bring the limit down to 110, and (c) there are portions of the non-toll network that are Dx or S2+1 and therefore have higher speed limits, I wonder whether the time savings from using the autoroute all the way are as great as one might presume at first glance.
Eurotunnel to Orleans via Rouen - I think it is about an hour extra by avoiding the Péage sections. You also have the benefit of being able to stop in a village and avoid the overcrowded service stations (joys of summer Saturday motoring in France). Probably another 30 minutes extra to get down to the start of the toll-free A20. It's a nice route choice if you are not driving to a schedule.

Simon
Calais to Poligny near Dijon - where we come off the motorway on our way across to the Swiss border - is about 6h on the motorways, or 9h off the motorways. The toll cost is €57 which I think is probably reasonable €20/hr saving. Having said that, the alternative is a very interesting-looking route via Luxembourg so maybe once when I don't have time pressure I may try it...
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Re: French motorway toll tag

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ChrisH wrote: Fri Aug 06, 2021 10:24
M4Simon wrote: Fri Aug 06, 2021 09:41
FosseWay wrote: Fri Aug 06, 2021 06:23 It depends where you're going and how much of a hurry you're in, but in many cases it's possible to get to the other end of the country without using a péage at all. I drove from Calais to the Mont Cénis pass (and back again 2 weeks later) without a toll. Many routes nationales are straight, good quality and fairly traffic free, meaning you can just sit at 90 (yes, I know the limit's gone down recently) for miles. Given that (a) the traffic on the autoroute may not allow you to do 130, and (b) it may rain and therefore bring the limit down to 110, and (c) there are portions of the non-toll network that are Dx or S2+1 and therefore have higher speed limits, I wonder whether the time savings from using the autoroute all the way are as great as one might presume at first glance.
Eurotunnel to Orleans via Rouen - I think it is about an hour extra by avoiding the Péage sections. You also have the benefit of being able to stop in a village and avoid the overcrowded service stations (joys of summer Saturday motoring in France). Probably another 30 minutes extra to get down to the start of the toll-free A20. It's a nice route choice if you are not driving to a schedule.

Simon
Calais to Poligny near Dijon - where we come off the motorway on our way across to the Swiss border - is about 6h on the motorways, or 9h off the motorways. The toll cost is €57 which I think is probably reasonable €20/hr saving. Having said that, the alternative is a very interesting-looking route via Luxembourg so maybe once when I don't have time pressure I may try it...
I checked the Calais-Lausanne route on viaMichen. There were three options worth following:

1. Calais - Luxembourg - Basel - Lausanne - €124.31; 848 km; 10h09 (Tolls - zero)
2. Via Dijon - 07h46; 756 km; €168.43 (Tolls - €57.50)
3. via Nancy - 09h53; 815 km; €147.98 (Tolls - €27.30)

DIfference between routes 1 and 2 is 2h23; 92 km; €57.50 tolls reduced by the cost of fuel for 92 km giving a net difference of €44.

All options included a €38.50 vignette in their costs.
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Re: French motorway toll tag

Post by Norfolktolancashire »

Vierwielen wrote: Fri Aug 06, 2021 23:05
ChrisH wrote: Fri Aug 06, 2021 10:24
M4Simon wrote: Fri Aug 06, 2021 09:41

Eurotunnel to Orleans via Rouen - I think it is about an hour extra by avoiding the Péage sections. You also have the benefit of being able to stop in a village and avoid the overcrowded service stations (joys of summer Saturday motoring in France). Probably another 30 minutes extra to get down to the start of the toll-free A20. It's a nice route choice if you are not driving to a schedule.

Simon
Calais to Poligny near Dijon - where we come off the motorway on our way across to the Swiss border - is about 6h on the motorways, or 9h off the motorways. The toll cost is €57 which I think is probably reasonable €20/hr saving. Having said that, the alternative is a very interesting-looking route via Luxembourg so maybe once when I don't have time pressure I may try it...
I checked the Calais-Lausanne route on viaMichen. There were three options worth following:

1. Calais - Luxembourg - Basel - Lausanne - €124.31; 848 km; 10h09 (Tolls - zero)
2. Via Dijon - 07h46; 756 km; €168.43 (Tolls - €57.50)
3. via Nancy - 09h53; 815 km; €147.98 (Tolls - €27.30)

DIfference between routes 1 and 2 is 2h23; 92 km; €57.50 tolls reduced by the cost of fuel for 92 km giving a net difference of €44.

All options included a €38.50 vignette in their costs.
Interesting. We used the French autoroutes from Geneva up to Calais a couple of years back and they were relatively traffic free, the tolls were around 70 euros IIRC.

With little time pressure we would use the toll free roads instead, apart from around the main towns such as Dijon.

It would be interesting to see how much is saved by using the autoroutes at a speed of 60mph instead of 80mph, in relation to the fuel saved. My vehicle does around 60mpg at 60mph on a motorway, and 40mpg at 80mph (130kmh) on the autoroutes.

This might make the tolls worthwhile?

Edit:- Just done some rough calculations and it would work out as a saving of £25 on fuel for the 500 mile journey from Geneva to Calais by reducing the vehicles speed to 60mph along the autoroutes.
Last edited by Norfolktolancashire on Wed Aug 11, 2021 12:54, edited 2 times in total.
baroudeur
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Re: French motorway toll tag

Post by baroudeur »

The problem with using French main roads to avoid autoroute tolls for long distance travel is the number of roundabouts and the 80 k/hr speed limits. Whereas a few years back such journeys were a pleasure today they can be a very slow slog.
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ChrisH
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Re: French motorway toll tag

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Just back from my trip to the Alps. The toll tag worked very well although I have no idea how much I paid for my trips until the bill arrives in a few weeks!

Going through the 30km/h lanes means that instead of a 0-100 drag race, I can do a 30-130 race which is equally fun :hehe: :driving:

It's a few years since I drove down the A26 in France (since before the Reims bypass, in fact) and I hadn't previously noticed that a lot of it has discontinuous hard shoulders, especially on the section north of Reims. The part nearer Calais has extra space on a lot of bridges to accommodate future D3M.

Also noticeable on the A31 around Dijon how international the vehicles were. Admittedly the first Saturday in September is prime end-of-holiday season for British, Dutch, Belgians, Germans etc. but overall I think the proportion of French cars was down towards 50%.

My journey to the Alps was 8 hours driving from Calais, so around 10 hours with stops. If I hadn't used the toll roads then I would have saved money in tolls but in all likelihood would have had to stop overnight: I was the only driver so fatigue would have been an issue.
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Re: French motorway toll tag

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My likely next visit to France will be on a classic Citroen event in May. I'll probably be in my Dyane, which may well be narrow enough for me to reach the machine from the driving seat...
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Re: French motorway toll tag

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ChrisH wrote: Mon Sep 06, 2021 15:02 Just back from my trip to the Alps. The toll tag worked very well although I have no idea how much I paid for my trips until the bill arrives in a few weeks!

Going through the 30km/h lanes means that instead of a 0-100 drag race, I can do a 30-130 race which is equally fun :hehe: :driving:

It's a few years since I drove down the A26 in France (since before the Reims bypass, in fact) and I hadn't previously noticed that a lot of it has discontinuous hard shoulders, especially on the section north of Reims. The part nearer Calais has extra space on a lot of bridges to accommodate future D3M.

Also noticeable on the A31 around Dijon how international the vehicles were. Admittedly the first Saturday in September is prime end-of-holiday season for British, Dutch, Belgians, Germans etc. but overall I think the proportion of French cars was down towards 50%.

My journey to the Alps was 8 hours driving from Calais, so around 10 hours with stops. If I hadn't used the toll roads then I would have saved money in tolls but in all likelihood would have had to stop overnight: I was the only driver so fatigue would have been an issue.
Several toll motorways in rural areas are built to lower spec - the A29 west of St Quentin lacked hard shoulders until 2017: https://goo.gl/maps/7WtMzdcrgFGtVYox5

It's now causing a huge problem on the A10 where bridges are narrow and conversion to D3M is now extremely expensive against a backdrop of looming roads protests.
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Al__S
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Re: French motorway toll tag

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Bryn666 wrote: Wed Oct 20, 2021 13:12
Several toll motorways in rural areas are built to lower spec - the A29 west of St Quentin lacked hard shoulders until 2017: https://goo.gl/maps/7WtMzdcrgFGtVYox5

It's now causing a huge problem on the A10 where bridges are narrow and conversion to D3M is now extremely expensive against a backdrop of looming roads protests.
The A28 has a D1 bridge: https://www.google.com/maps/@49.2024356 ... 384!8i8192
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Re: French motorway toll tag

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Al__S wrote: Fri Oct 22, 2021 07:34
The A28 has a D1 bridge: https://www.google.com/maps/@49.2024356 ... 384!8i8192
I remember driving over that the other year. I suppose with low traffic levels D1 is acceptable for stretches like this to save money on structures

Locally as a Spanish resident I use a 'bip and drive' tag, which covers Spain, Portugal and France, and have used it all between the Algarve and Calais!
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